NatureCare Products Essay: Marketing Policy And Procedure Brief

Complete the following activities:

1.Review the NatureCare Marketing Policy and Procedure to ensure that the promotional activities that you recommend meet requirements.

2.Complete the following activities in order to develop a briefing report that:

3. Provides an introduction to the report, including a summary of overall objectives, as well as marketing objectives and rationale for identifying and implementing promotional activities and the budget allocated.

4. Outlines the various options for promotional activity, including the pros and cons of each of the following promotional activity options:
?Advertising (radio, television and newspapers)
?Social media marketing
?Media announcements, including social media announcements
?Product launches/special events
?Web pages.
?Direct marketing.

5. Discuss at least 2 promotional activities from above, that Nature Care Products could undertake keeping in mind the limitations of budget ($5,000.00) 

?Describe each of the potential promotional activities and your reasons for identifying it as suitable.
?Identify at least two business networks that could be used to build business and what benefits they give to assist in the implementation of promotional activities.
?For each of the promotional activities you have identified as suitable, document the promotional SMART objectives.

6. Discuss how the proposed promotional activities will meet the NatureCare Products Marketing Policy and Procedure?

7. Develop an action plan using the template provided by your assessor to set out how your recommended promotional activities will be actioned.

Marketing Policy and Procedure

The company’s policy and procedure was developed to ensure that marketing activities and materials for NatureCare Products are in line with laws and regulations controlling marketing practices in Australia (Moriarty et al. 2014, pp. 12). Whether printed or broadcasted, all our company’s advertising and marketing materials must be in line with the country’s Advertising Standards Bureau. Thus, the promotional activities identified and fronted in this document are all in line with NatureCare Products Marketing Policy and Procedures since they will be executed according to the provisions and stipulations and policy aimed at building the company’s reputation as well as ensure that there is fair competition.

According to NatureCare Products Marketing Policy and Procedure, a company through the Marketing Officer is allowed to plan, develop and execute relevant and appropriate promotional activities that seek to advertise and market our products. The marketing manager in consultation with the Operations Manager should identify and execute various ethical promotional activities with an aim of meeting the company’s goals and objectives. Therefore, this brief aims at highlighting the company’s goals and objectives, various promotional activities, organization’s goals and objectives, why and which promotional activities are required in order to meet the company’s goals and objectives.

The company has an overall objective of increasing its sales and brand awareness over the next three years. Moreover, NatureCare is striving to improve its revenue income by 50% over the next 12 months. However, the company is making vary little sales right now due to lack of brand awareness by the target customers and the presence of few stores where our products are being sold. This has been attributed to lack of promotional activities to advertise and market the company’s products thus lowering sales as well as lack brand awareness among our target customers.

Our target group in the market is comprised of professional women who age fall between 25-55 years and our products include cleansing creams, Multi Protection Day Moisturizing Creams and Regenerating facial scrub (NatureCare 2015).

We position ourselves in the market as a company that offers unique, eco-friendly and quality products to cater for the needs of our target group.

Here, we have used SWOT model to analyse the company in order to come up with recommendations on what to do (Culp III et al. 2016, pp. 3).

Strength

• The company produces quality products that are eco-friendly.

Weakness

• The company lacks a strong brand awareness.
• Our online sites lacks SEO and shopping cart to help our customers buy our products.
• NatureCare Products are found in few places leading to low sales.

Opportunities

• To utilize various promotional activities in order to create brand awareness and increase sales.

Threats

• Competition from companies offering similar products.

By analyzing the company and looking at its goals and objectives, it is clear that the company has failed to reach them. Thus, the team of management at NatureCare Products has sought to conduct various promotional activities in order to counter the challenges that the company is facing in the market. Hence, $5000 has been allocated for this but since it is too little, it is important to explore various promotional activities and their suitability for the purpose of identifying those that are effective and pocket friendly.  

1. Social Media Marketing

NatureCare Products' Goals and Objectives

Social media involves sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and many other sites which have formed various marketing channels for companies across Australia. To deeply understand the concept of social media marketing, we look at the advantages and disadvantages of using it as a way of promoting a company.

Advantages

Unlike the other traditional ways of marketing, social media marketing reaches more customers.

It can be used to build brand awareness and loyalty.

It is less expensive.

It is improving each day with growth in internet.

Disadvantages

Getting people to maintain it becomes expensive.

It requires continuous monitoring.

It is hard to gauge its results on the sales.

It can lead to delayed feedback incase a customer has no continuous internet connection.

Advertising as a mode of promotion which involves placing ads on television, radio or newspapers has also its merits and demerits as discussed below:

Merits

The advertiser has more control over the time of an advert or its position on a newspaper.

There a lot of flexibility in the way a message can be displayed, that, whether once or continuously.

Just like social media, it is hard to gauge its results/impact on the sale of the products being sold.

Placing adverts on print or broadcast media is very expensive.

3. Product launches/Events

This is one of the most common and successful promotional activity for many companies.

They help and company make huge sales hence more profit.

They involve face to face and tangible buying by customers.

It is easy to track the success of this technique.

Cons

They require a lot of planning which may take a lot of time.

They require more personnel hence very expensive.

Direct Marketing involves selling products directly to clients for instance using telemarketing.

It is less expensive

Creates a good relationship between customers and sellers.

Telemarketing goes against the “Do Not Call Registry” policy in the Marketing policy.

It ends ups irritating customers due to a lot of information loads.

This involves digital advertising of products over the internet using websites and blogs.

It is less expensive.

The response is relatively very fast.

It helps in disseminating messages while targeting the right audience.

It is available throughout.

It offers much convenience to the customers.

Easy to measure and track its success.

It involves bulky data that end up confusing the customer.

A lot of competition since many companies can afford websites which are less expensive to acquire and maintain.

Target Customers and Products

Through clear analysis and the budget at hard, it is appropriate to use social media marketing and online advertising. This is because they are less expensive and they suit the budget since they are less expensive to plan and execute. The two are also easy to track their success and also reach more clients (Pawar 2014, pp. 12). The two activities can be available throughout as long as there is internet connection. The company can use networks from Advertising Standards Bureau and local Chamber of Commerce. Social media marketing and online advertising are in line with NatureCare Products Marketing Policy and Procedure since they do not violate “Do Not Call Registry” policy as well as they do not subject employees to unsafe environments thus obeying Health and Safety Policy.  

Social Media Marketing

Specific: Can be used to reach many users at once without spending more money.

Measurable: The results can be easily tracked and measured.

Achievable: It is easy to open these sites and within less time.

Realistic: One-on-one interaction with customers.

Timely: Its results are timely since you get feedback from customers more easily.

Online Advertising

Specific: Can be used to reach specific target clients.

Measurable: The results can be easily tracked and measured.

Achievable: It is easy to open these sites and within less time.

Realistic: One-on-one interaction with customers.

Timely: Its results are timely since you get feedback from customers more easily.  

ACTION PLAN

Promotional Activity	Resources Required	Staff Responsible	When	Cost
Online Advertising	Blogs Website	Web developer System administrators IT expert Marketing officer	Aug 2018-Aug 2019	$3000
Social Media Marketing	Facebook Account Twitter Account Instagram Account	Social Media managers Marketing officer	Aug 2018-Aug 2019	$2000

EMAIL TO THE OPERATIONS MANAGER

[email protected]

Dear Sir,

As advised by the management team as well as per the provisions of company’s Marketing Policy and Procedure, I have developed a report brief proposing two promotional activities meant to advertise and market our products. The promotional activities are meant to boost sales and create brand awareness for our products which is in line with our goals and objectives.

Attached here is the report brief and the action plan for the whole process. Please go through it and make possible adjustments. We will plan a meeting in one week’s time to deliberate more on this and how to implement the proposed promotional activities. The meeting will take place at the company’s boardroom starting from 10am.

Kind Regards  

Marketing Officer

Cc CEO 

Six days after submitting the report brief and action plan to the Operations Manager and CEO, I called to check on their availability as well as confirmation of the meeting venue. The meeting was to take place at the company’s boardroom starting from 10am.

SWOT Analysis

We discussed the proposed promotional materials deeply as I tried to convince the Operations Manager and the CEO on the suitability of the two proposals while taking into consideration the budget at hand. I handed the two a printed copy each so that we can follow it word by word and make possible adjustments. There were several key points of the from the brief that were discussed, that is, all the promotional activities like product launch, online advertising, social media advertising, advertising and direct marketing. However, due to the budget at hand, we settled on the recommended online advertising and social media marketing which were less expensive promotional activities to run. We also explored on the objectives of the company which was to create brand awareness, increase sales and have an online presence. After the deliberations from the meeting, the two senior officers accepted the proposed promotional activities for implementation but they added that an evaluation and monitoring process to be included in the action plan which we agreed unanimously.

The Marketing officer will seek reports from the staff tasked with the implementation of various promotional activities after every 6 months. That is, the success will be measured against the broader objective of increasing sales by 50% within a time frame of one year. Since the results and impact of the two promotional activities are measurable, the Marketing officer will undertake the process of evaluating the outcomes against the set goals and make necessary recommendations in case there is a problem. Therefore, this alongside other adjustments were made and the final documents was emailed back to the Operations Manager and copied to the CEO.

One of the most serious problem that faced NatureCare product was lack of a well-developed website with a shopping cart to help customers order for the products online. The website also lacked Search Engine Optimization hence making lack frequent visitors who could get to know about the company’s products. Therefore, $5000 was offered to help in updating the website as one way of implementing the proposed promotional activities. The first step was to contact a website developer through a brief attached to an email set direct to the web builder.

We are currently seeking an update of our e-commerce site. Though we have an existing website, we need some update which will integrate some more portals on it.

We are a leading company in producing skin care and beauty products based in Brisbane, Australia. We are planning to promote and sell our products online through our website. The company has a team of seven employees.

Our current site lacks basic e-commerce elements like shopping cart that we need to incorporate in our existing website.

Our Expectations

• We are seeking to grow our sales by reducing the rate of working manually by:
• Including SEO on our websites
• Display all our products on website and add a shopping cart to help our customers order for products online.
• Maintain privacy and confidentiality of our information as well as that of our clients.

Site Architecture

• Contact including emails and telephone line.
• Home
• Shop
• Products
• Blog
• T/Cs
• About Us

Content

• Shopping Cart
• Social Media Sites
• Payment Methods
• Feedback Portal

Timeline

• Reply by: 4^thAugust
• Awarding of the Contract: 7^thAugust
• Date of update completion: 5^thSeptember

Budget

• Range: Between $3500-4000 and monthly $50 for hosting.

EMAIL TO OPERATIONS MANAGER ON A WEB BRIEF

[email protected]

Dear Sir,

Following the go-ahead to implement the proposed promotional activities, I have decided to draft a brief to the web developer so that we can contract someone to update our website. Attached here is a brief I prepared. Please go through it and make the appropriate recommendations before we do the final brief. The brief has been prepared in line with the budget allocated. Waiting to hear from you.

Kind Regards

Marketing Officer.

Cc CEO.

EMAIL TO OPERATIONS MANAGER AFTER AN UPDATE

The Operations Manager proposed that the developer to run an ongoing maintenance until the website is stable.

Dear Sir,

[email protected]

Find the final updated brief attached here.

Kind Regards,

Marketing Officer.

Cc CEO

After a keen evaluation of the whole process of implementing the promotional activities, this is the report of outcomes, the budget, issues encountered, impact of these outcomes as well as the recommendations for future promotional activities. The report is after 6 months within the implementation period.

Positive Outcomes

• The sales increased by 20% against the 50% expected after one year.
• Online sales also went up.
• Products were stocked in more outlets across Australia.
• The email started working and the clients would seek clarifications and other information through it.
• The online shop is also picking on very well

Issues/Challenges encountered

• All the client emails were not answered due to small number of staff.
• Product differentiation was still hard due to lack of brand awareness and people would confuse the company’s products with those of the competitors.
• Other competing companies had launched more products thus offering variety in the market thus threating the survival of NatureCare products in the market.
• The timeline set to finish the process was not met.
• The budget had a deficit as well.

Benefits

• Increase in sales.
• More client engagements.
• Improved shopping experience.
• Market expansion.

In future, the company should:

• Prepare to undertake a promotional activity in advance.
• Hire more employees to drive such initiatives in future.
• Offer enough finances for their projects in future.
• The company should also have a more extended timeframe to undertake an activity in future.

Conclusion

Advertising and marketing is a core element of promoting a company’s products and service. Thus, a company should prepare effectively and offer the necessary resources to support the product. However, the management should be objective in order to achieve the desired results from any promotional activity implementation. Therefore, a process of promoting a company’s products and services requires an appropriate management in order to be successful (Posavac 2015, pp. 25). 

References

Culp III, K., Eastwood, C., Turner, S., Goodman, M. and Ricketts, K.G., 2016. Using a SWOT Analysis: Taking a Look at Your Organization, pp. 1-6.

Moriarty, S., Mitchell, N.D., Wells, W.D., Crawford, R., Brennan, L. and Spence-Stone, R., 2014. Advertising: Principles and practice. Pearson Australia, pp. 1-24.

NatureCare. (2015). Our Products. [Online]. Available from: < https://www.naturescare.com.au/en/our-products> [Accessed on 1 August 2018].

Pawar, A.A., 2014. Study of the effectiveness of online Marketing on integrated Marketing Communication. School of Management, DY Patil University, Navi Mumbai. p.12.

Posavac, E.J., 2015. Program evaluation: Methods and case studies. Routledge, pp. 20-30.